Darwin Team

Last week we had a small team from Darwin visiting the Nazarene Church in Los Palos.  There are a lot of benefits to to having people over from Darwin.  They know about living in the tropics, they are used of long trips on rough roads and they have seen buffalo before (thats gotta count for something).  Samuel went with them to Los Palos after having a bit of difficulty getting a suitable car.  Its great to see Pastor Samuel and Uli using the new training and accommodation building.  The team got a bit of a reality check I think with how poor the local pastors are when we found that they didn’t have the $40 to finish tiling in the meeting area.  But the place looks great and they even have a gas stove to cook on!  This means a lot to Pastor Samuel who suffered terribly from TB and constantly coughed with the smoke from the fire going through the old house.   We got involved in  English lessons  where we presented them with Bibles.  On Saturday night we went to a bible study where Samuel shared a message in Tetun and got to hand out more Bibles and then on Sunday morning we shared in the church service where Pastor Bruce was able to preach.  The road back is getting pretty washed out now and unknown to the team, but very soon after they got back to Dili the road was washed out and has been rendered impassible.  Now the road to the west and east are both washed out and it looks like the road over the mountains is about to go as well.  Add to this, the only ferry service to Oecussi being out of service its getting pretty hard to get around to large parts of the country.  Once roads are down this has a big impact on the economy and other services such as medical runs and aid and development work. 
We are getting enough work to get by on, hallelujah, and Samuel will be away all next week trying to fix a roof for an agricultural research station.  The mission base down by the beach is still getting built.  Hopefully this week they will have walls finished and ready for the roof.
I’m pretty sure this is an Indonesian style roof but I wonder if it has  a Portuguese influence?  In any case, I am really not sure why the roofing iron doesn’t go over the wall.  This leads to lots of leaking where the old iron meets the wall.  Then the roof timbers rot.  Mix in a heap of white ants, rat chewed electrical work and alfoil thin roofing iron and there’s only one white fella stupid enough to get up on it …. yours truly.

Just some pics to fill the gap

While Samuel is off gallavanting around the island, I thought id do a little of my style of blog update...

Feregrina - pointing up to Serenity who was taking the photo from her upstairs bedroom.

Israel surrounded by beauties - Naomi and Feregrina

the missionary kids science lesson - building a flashing lighthouse! The 4 of us mums take turns every week.  Sometimes its a little daunting, but they are all such sweet kids!

Serenity took this lovely picture of Cynthia holding Israel, the corner of Atauro on the far right.

"Our" beach :) there were about 50 small outrigger canoes fishing where the river flowed into the sea.

Serenity the model! well she was looking at Israel.... This is what our front yard will look like when the new building is finished.

This is the view from the side of the new building - a little swampy from all the heavy rain, and lots of coconuts to fall in heavy winds :)

Asika the bright eyed beauty - we cant resist taking photos of her!

Serenity and Asika standing on the upper floor of the new building with the beach in the background

The freshwater creek altered course a little after some large waves, and ran parallel with the beach for 50m or so. Very Picturesque.

Israel and Asika making a fishing line - the blue boat in the background is ours.

Well i thought i better stick up a photo of me too, just so you know im still alive :)

The back of the new building - a small verandah leads to the office, with a storage room to the right for all Samuel's annoying tools :0

Hope you enjoyed the images.  I am sure Samuel will have a story or two to add when he returns from Los Palos!  Stand by for more exciting news.....

A Turning Tide

When we lived on the Clarence River the tide would go out and come back in each day.  At the very lowest point, the mighty river came to a stop.  If you saw it for the first time you might be tempted to think, “What’s going to happen now?!” It is a moment in time that may not last long but its a powerful moment when it happens.  And then, the tide turns, slowly at first, it begins to flow back.  Thats what it feels like for us.  A very dark and low moment in our lives has happened.  We did not know what would follow but it seems like little by little things are looking up.  We have lots of opportunities to help folks out here and encourage them.  Things are still simple, difficult and tight but Samuel has had work all week and has even put together a business card to pass around (very professional!)
Bellekria (The sewing project) has had an exciting order of 50 bags from a lady in Darwin. Sinta and Cynthia were discussing how much fabric to buy to make up the remaining bags, and realised they had enough already in store to make all but 10, which means less outlay.  Cynthia also received an exciting offer from the lovely specialist fabric shop in Brisbane.  They have offered her a bulk amount of odds and ends (perfect for small projects like cloth pads) at a greatly reduced price.  Its all stored in New Zealand, and will save them hours of measuring and listing each small piece on their internet shop if she buys it all.  So far she has $240 donated to purchase this fabric. Very exciting.